HPE recently introduced a data in place upgrade for the HPE 3PAR 8000 platform. This means that if you’re a customer running HPE 3PAR Storage, you now can independently scale up and scale out your storage compute and capacity resources without requiring forklift upgrades or disruption to your applications.

Prior to all-flash arrays, storage performance was typically limited by the back-end drive media. More drives were added to get more performance. Now with the move to all-flash, customers find that there is more than sufficient performance capability in even a few SSD, but the bottleneck moves to the controllers/ CPU. This prevents the full realization of benefit of SSD media.

In the past, some customers have had to solve for this by siphoning off the workload to a separate system. Or, if they were lucky enough to have the budget, they would purchase the most powerful controller option up-front and grow into it over time. Either way, the customers had to buy more than what they actually need. Data in place upgrades help to address this, as we continue to deliver a timeless storage experience.

Gone are the days where storage arrays are purchased and refreshed every three years. Hard-disk drive media would experience higher failure rates after three-years, often forcing customers to consider a tech refresh after only running the system for a few years. Efficient flash architectures, like 3PAR, enable you to further extend the life of your SSD investment by up to seven years.*

Adding up the benefits of data inplace upgrades

Now with the introduction of data in place upgrades, you can realize these additional benefits:

Investment protection—The majority of the investment in any new AFA is the SSD media. With SSDs being such a large part of the budget, customers would like to realize their benefit much longer than traditional HDDs. Fortunately for HPE 3PAR, this can be up to 7-years guaranteed*. Data in place upgrade allows customers to get the benefit of getting the full value of all drive media, while still being able to add performance only when needed by simply by adding new controllers without requiring a rip and replace migration. This save both time and money.

Scaling performance and capacity independently—The growth of all-flash arrays has moved the performance bottleneck from the drive media to the CPU. By disaggregating the CPU and controllers from the drives, you have the choice to upgrade performance and capacity completely independent of one another. Simply upgrade the controllers without adding capacity, and continue to deliver all-flash performance and only add capacity when needed.

Start small and grow—Starting with the 3PAR 8000 platform, you can confidently select the smallest 3PAR platform, knowing that you have an upgrade path to quad-node resiliency, performance up to 1M IOPs, and capacity limits of to 4PB of capacity without requiring a forklift upgrade or scheduling downtime.

Data in place upgrades expand on the 3PAR legacy of providing data mobility solutions for customers as they move forward with their technology. Peer Motion and Online Import enable any IT organization to move data onto the 3PAR platform without requiring third-party tools, thus saving additional cost and complexity.

Why it’s time for timeless storage

Customers continue to remind me that storage management is a thing of the past and must now be considered as data management. The typical three-year refresh cycle, followed by costly and disruptive forklift upgrades and data migrations, will not survive in a world where the customer expects their experience to be timeless. This means that all-flash performance alone is not sufficient. Resilience, investment protection, and peace of mind are equally (if not more) important as you look to take advantage of advances in storage technology.

This is an exciting step in the journey of delivering a timeless experience for HPE 3PAR. Expect to see further innovations that change how companies manage data—spending less time on managing the data and more time delivering data and insights back to the business.

For more information, please contact your local HPE Authorized Business Partner or your HPE account representative.

Meet Around the Storage Block blogger Andrew Murphy, Product Management HPE Storage. Andrew is an experienced IT professional who has spent his career in Enterprise Sales and Marketing with HPE and the channel. Now in product management for HPE Storage, Andrew is responsible for 3PAR midrange systems and delivering products that empower customers to move business forward using innovation that exploits the industry’s latest storage technology advancements.